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  • Chris Low

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    ESPN Senior Writer
    • College football reporter
    • Joined ESPN.com in 2007
    • Graduate of the University of Tennessee

  • Alex Scarborough

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    ESPN Staff Writer
    • Covers the SEC.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of Auburn University.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Former Alabama quarterback Blake Sims can still remember the feeling of that November night back in 2014, when he and the offense were standing on the field in overtime at LSU. With his mind and heart racing, and the roar of the Tiger Stadium crowd ringing in his ears, he shot a glance toward the sideline and Coach Nick Saban.

Less than 24 hours earlier, first-year offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin had come up with the play Sims was about to run — a daring empty set formation in which the offensive tackle, Cam Robinson, would split out wide as a receiver and a 305-pound reserve tight end, Brandon Greene, would masquerade as an offensive lineman.

The play’s name doubled as a sort of warning: Oh S—.

“Oh s—,” Kiffin had warned Sims and the rest of the offense in their team meeting the night before, “if this doesn’t work guys, Coach Saban is going to kill me on national TV.”

No blood was shed. LSU didn’t pick up on the fact that Greene was actually an eligible receiver as he took off down the middle of the field after the snap and hauled in a 24-yard reception on the first play of overtime, leading to a 20-13 Alabama victory.

“We all would have gotten our asses ripped if that play would have gone bad, not just Coach Kiffin,” said Sims. “But that’s the way Coach Kiffin rolls. He wasn’t afraid to take chances, and Coach Saban wasn’t afraid to take a chance on him … and you see what that’s led to.”

Much like that play, the pairing of Saban and Kiffin was high-risk at the time and genius in hindsight. And it has now come full circle, as Kiffin returns to Bryant-Denny Stadium to lead his No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels against Saban’s No. 1 Crimson Tide on Saturday.

But for the full story of how Alabama transitioned from ground-and-pound, game-manager-QB Alabama to high-flying, first-round-QBs-and-Heisman-winning-receiver Alabama, you have to start at the beginning, when the sport’s most accomplished head coach took a chance on the game’s most controversial.

“I remember him saying, ‘I feel like our offense is a Lamborghini, but it’s headed off a cliff,’ meaning we’ve got these great players, but are behind the times in what we’re doing,” said Kiffin, recalling their first meeting after he was hired. “So we needed to change directions.”

When Auburn‘s Chris Davis caught a missed field goal and returned it more than 100 yards for a game-winning score against Alabama in the 2013 Iron Bowl, it did more than dash any hope the Crimson Tide had of winning a third straight national title. It was the final signal to Saban that his program, despite its massive success, was beginning to grow outdated offensively.

While Auburn, Ole Miss and Texas A&M were using tempo and spreading the field with multiple receivers, Alabama was still putting the quarterback under center and still utilizing a mostly pro-style playbook.

Saban, after years of complaining about how the rules were tilted in favor of spread and hurry-up offenses, was eager to play catch-up with what he called the “fastball guys.”

So two weeks after losing to Auburn, an unlikely visitor started popping up at the Alabama practice field.

Center Ryan Kelly barely noticed Kiffin hanging around those few days in mid-December. Former coaches were always coming and going, Kelly explained.

Speaking to reporters, Saban brushed off the importance of Kiffin’s visit. Never mind that Kiffin was one of the most eccentric and divisive figures in college football. The 38-year-old had recently been fired by USC and was only four years removed from bailing on Tennessee after just one season.

Saban said hosting Kiffin was an opportunity for “professional development.”

“Obviously,” Kelly said, “that was the precursor to what was coming.”

Sims, who was a backup at the time but knew Kiffin from his recruitment by Tennessee, was one of the few players who put two and two together.

“I said, ‘We’re about to be deadly, so cold, because I knew what he would do with our offense,” Sims said. “It was the perfect combination, Coach Saban’s structure and Coach Kiffin’s creative mind.”

In the ensuing days, everything came together. Offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier told Sims and the rest of the offense that the Sugar Bowl would be his last game at Alabama. He would eventually land the same job at Michigan.

During a recruiting visit, Saban pulled linebackers coach Lance Thompson into a bathroom for a private conversation. Thompson said Saban told him he had three candidates in mind to replace Nussmeier. One of them was Kiffin, whom Thompson had worked for at Tennessee.

Saban asked Thompson, now the inside linebackers coach at Florida Atlantic, what he thought.

“I’d hire Lane, Coach,” he said. “He’s a special playcaller.”

Thompson then paused for a moment. “But I’m going to tell you,” he said, “he’s different.”

Saban didn’t miss a beat.

“I ain’t never had a problem handling an assistant coach,” he said.

Saban would ultimately hire Kiffin and test his confidence about wrangling wayward assistants. Their personalities were so far apart, Thompson said, “It was like Earth and Neptune.”

Their collision caused fireworks at times, but more importantly, it led to the total re-imagining of Alabama’s offense and the resurrection of Kiffin’s career.

“People think you go there because it’s coaching rehab and you get a head job somewhere else,” Kiffin told ESPN earlier this week. “I guess that’s one way to approach it, and some people do. But for me, I look back at all of the things I learned under [Saban] that made me a better coach despite everything that’s been said about our time together and any differences we might have had.”

There were plenty of skeptics when Saban brought Kiffin on board.

“A lot of people might have been surprised when I brought Lane in as coordinator, probably even here in the building,” Saban told ESPN. “But I wanted to grow on offense. We needed to grow, and I felt like he was the best guy at that time to help us do that.”

But this wouldn’t be a simple course correction. Because while Saban wanted to implement the spread and use more tempo, Kiffin had very little history of doing either. At Tennessee and USC, he had run a similar pro-style attack as Alabama.

“He researched all that stuff and we’d go over it,” Saban said. “… So I was kinda learning it from him, and he was learning it from other people.”

For much of the next two years, Kiffin did his homework on those coaches and teams running up-tempo offenses with run-pass elements (RPOs). He paid careful attention to what his former USC brethren Steve Sarkisian was doing as head coach at Washington, racking up more than 600 total yards of offense in a game five times during the 2013 season.

There were also talks with Tom Herman when he was the offensive coordinator at Ohio State and Doug Meacham at TCU. Kiffin said he remained in touch with Chip Kelly, who was then in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles after coaching against Kiffin while at Oregon.

That April, during Kiffin’s first spring at Alabama, the Crimson Tide hosted their annual coaching clinic. There were a few usual suspects, such as former Alabama coaches Gene Stallings and Sylvester Croom, but among the headliners was someone with no ties to the school or Saban: Baylor coach and hurry-up offensive guru Art Briles, who was later fired in response to a review of the school’s handling of sexual assault allegations against students, including several football players.

Thompson said Briles’ attendance was no coincidence.

“There’s not a coach that comes to a clinic that Nick doesn’t sit down with individually and talk to and the coaches on the offensive and defensive side of the ball talk to those guys, too,” Thompson said. “Every coach from another program, every coach that’s brought in for an interview, is brought in for a purpose.”

That purpose: “To gain new information.”

Saban and Kiffin left no stone unturned. In their second year together, no-huddle guru Eric Kiesau was brought in on staff as an offensive analyst. Kiesau, now the receivers coach at Auburn, worked under Sarkisian at Washington and was previously the offensive coordinator at Colorado and passing game coordinator at Cal. He was a valuable sounding board for Kiffin on such things as using the sideline boards that help teams go faster on offense.

Alabama ran what was then a school-record 1,088 offensive plays in 2015 after running 1,018 the year before. The Tide had not run more than 898 plays in a season the previous four years.

“Everybody says that I go through so many guys on offense,” Saban said. “Look, I learn from all of them. We went through a transformation when Lane was here … intentionally. It was intentional. I wanted to, and he wanted to, too, and we’ve continued to build.”

The transition wasn’t seamless, though.

For instance: Kelly remembers how frustrated he was when he found out Kiffin wanted to scrap the traditional way quarterbacks signaled for the snap with a voice command like “hike” in favor of clapping. Kelly said he let it be known to his coaches, “How does this make sense? Like, anybody could be clapping, right?”

“There was give and take,” explained Kelly, who’s in his sixth season with the Indianapolis Colts.

That applied to the staff’s interaction with Kiffin, too.

One time, Kelly recalled, he thought offensive line coach Mario Cristobal was going to lose it on Kiffin.

“He was so close to walking into Lane’s office and strangling him,” Kelly said. “Because they were going out to practice and there were five new plays we hadn’t installed and no one could find Lane.”

Over time, Saban grew increasingly frustrated with what he said was a lack of organization on Kiffin’s part.

“I wanted things done a certain way,” Saban said. “I wanted the coaches to meet. I wanted everybody to have input, and that was not his style. Some of the other coaches complained to me about it, and I always said that Lane would be a much better head coach than an assistant because when you’re a head coach and you know what you want to do and you’ve got organized people around you, you really don’t need to be that organized.”

One assistant on that staff joked: “Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban were a match. It just wasn’t a match made in heaven.”

When Kiffin arrived in Tuscaloosa, Blake Sims was no one’s idea of a record-setting SEC quarterback.

AJ McCarron had just left for the NFL and former Florida State quarterback Jake Coker had transferred in, becoming the odds-on favorite to start.

The coaching staff loved Sims, but if they’re being honest, Thompson said, they were surprised he beat out Coker and started a single game. Even Sims admits he was recruited to Alabama by Kirby Smart to play free safety.

“He’d been Scout Team Player of the Week more than anybody in the history of Alabama football,” Thompson said. “He had played running back, safety, quarterback, wide receiver, fullback, tight end. The kid had played everything. He was such a wonderful kid. And then Lane comes and does a great job giving him stuff that he can do.”

Overnight, Sims transformed into a deft distributor of the football, making the kind of quick decisions that allowed All-America receiver Amari Cooper and others to shine.

That was no accident. Thompson said that during the lead up to the season, Kiffin shortened the terminology of plays, cutting 10-word calls in half in order to make things easier for everyone to understand, and Sims responded by passing for more yards (3,487) than anybody in the history of Alabama football had passed for to that point.

Whereas the year before the playbook was the size of a novel, Kelly said, it was suddenly condensed into a single chapter.

“To see a guy who really before that played kind of a utility role turn into that,” Kelly said of Sims, “that was obviously a lot of Lane’s doing. He figured out, ‘What’s this guy’s strengths and weaknesses? And let’s play those advantages.’ And that’s ultimately what he did the entire time I was there my last two years.”

Sims, who’s now playing for the Spokane Shock in the Indoor Football League, would watch tape with Cooper and running back Kenyan Drake of those Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush USC teams when Kiffin was the Trojans’ offensive coordinator.

“It was always amazing to me how he could see one play on film and know immediately how to attack the defense,” Sims said. “He could be standing on the field and see things nobody else could.”

In the Florida game that 2014 season, Kiffin pulled Sims and Drake aside before the game and devised a play for Drake to split out wide as a receiver and Sims to line up in the shotgun in an empty backfield. On the first play from scrimmage, Drake found himself matched against a linebacker and ran a slant-and-go route for an easy 75-yard touchdown reception.

Kiffin said they had never practiced that “sluggo” route with Drake, but that he had this “weird feeling” that Florida would be in man coverage.

“I thought about it at the last minute and we put it in in the locker room,” said Kiffin, adding that Bush ran that similar play for a long touchdown against Notre Dame in 2004.

Sims said: “You just didn’t see Alabama doing that kind of stuff before, but Coach Kiffin was great at getting those matchups and finding ways to get his best players the ball.”

As a playcaller, Saban said Kiffin is the best he’s ever been around.

“He sees how the defense is playing something and immediately knows,” Saban said, snapping his fingers for emphasis, “what he wants to run against it.”

Saban said it’s overblown how much he and Kiffin sparred that first season when it came to football, and even Kiffin said his former boss is a much better listener than people give him credit for, at least in certain areas.

“On scheme, yes. But not when it comes to the structure of his program,” Kiffin said. “It’s hard to argue that, though. Look at his success.”

Much like the “Oh S—” play against LSU, Kiffin was renowned for coming up with plays, even on the day of the game, which made it seem like sandlot football at times. And yes, he felt the wrath of Saban, but it usually was worth it.

“Some people when you get into a very structured environment like that, and you’re a little bit more of a color-outside-the-lines guy, just sort of conform because they can’t handle the pressure if it doesn’t work,” said one former assistant coach. “But Lane would color outside the lines, and if two things worked and two things didn’t work, it wouldn’t faze him mentally.”

One of the areas where Kiffin and Saban clashed most often that first season came on resting players, especially during practice, and cutting down on their reps later in the season.

“I didn’t win many of those battles,” Kiffin said. “Maybe the only one was with Amari Cooper. He was like a running back that year. He caught 124 passes [a school record]. I just wanted to make sure he still had his legs at the end of the season.”

Saban admits that he’s old-school, but not to the point of being stubborn.

“I’m old-school when it comes to doing things right and being disciplined, all that,” Saban said. “I’m not old-school in the technical aspects of playing the game. There are differences, and I don’t think people get that sometimes.

“So I do listen. I listen a lot, listened to Lane [on Cooper]. That’s how you learn. Now, there are some things I’m just not willing to compromise.”

While there might have been some concession on Cooper and his reps that season, a coach on that staff said Saban is unwavering when it comes to practice.

“That wasn’t going to change, and it hasn’t changed,” the coach said. “And anybody who tells you it has changed is lying. The process is the process, and the way [Saban] develops his football team with practice reps is not changing. It wasn’t Lane’s call. It wasn’t my call. It was Coach Saban’s call.

“Now, do you have the ability to get him to expand what his intent is? Yes. Lane got him to expand his thinking on certain things. But change? No.”

In retrospect, Kiffin admits he might have pressed too hard, too fast, on some things.

“Like a lot of people do with a previous marriage, I look back on my time now with Coach Saban differently,” Kiffin said. “I could have done much better with just, ‘Yes sir,’ no matter what he said. That’s the majority of that building. They say, ‘Yes sir,’ no matter what. I guess my issue was that I wasn’t trained that way. I’d been a head coach and an assistant coach to Pete Carroll for six years. Pete Carroll was not a ‘yes sir’ environment at all. It was more, ‘Bring up whatever ideas you want.'”

The two coaches stood at midfield inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium after one of the most exciting games last season, Kiffin wearing an Ole Miss powder blue face covering and shaking hands with his former boss, Saban, who was decked out in head-to-toe Alabama gear.

For three-and-a-half quarters, they’d gone back and forth in an old fashioned shootout. The final score: Alabama 63, Ole Miss 48.

“That damn Lane, he said it after they played us last year: ‘Everything I told him for three years, he wrote it down,'” Saban would later say. “He said after the game, ‘I did every one of those things in the game.’

“He had a whole notepad of s— that I said was a problem to defend when we were together, and he said, ‘I did every one of them.'”

The two teams combined for an SEC-record 1,370 yards, and the 647 yards the Rebels churned out were the most ever against the Tide.

It was a brand of football that would have been unrecognizable to Saban and Kiffin when they first joined up.

“We used to recruit against Alabama at USC and Tennessee and would say, ‘You’re a great quarterback. Don’t go there. You’ll be a game manager. You’ll never put up big numbers,'” Kiffin said. “If you were a receiver, we would tell them not to go there. Here’s Julio Jones, one of the greatest of all time, and he never had more than 78 catches, but yet, Amari Cooper had 124.”

In Kiffin’s three years in Tuscaloosa, the Tide went 40-4 with three College Football Playoff appearances and one national title.

Of course, Kiffin didn’t make it to Alabama’s national title game that third year, having been dismissed by Saban earlier in the week. Kiffin had taken the head job with Florida Atlantic, and Saban felt he wasn’t paying enough attention to his Alabama job after the Tide scored just two offensive touchdowns and freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts threw for just 57 yards in a 24-7 national semifinal win over Washington.

“You look back and see where you were at fault and what I could have done better,” Kiffin said. “Now I find myself, which is like a kid saying and doing the same things his parents did, sounding a lot like Coach Saban.”

When Kiffin left, Alabama’s offense only got scarier under future offensive coordinators Mike Locksley and Sarkisian. The program produced first-round quarterbacks like Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones, who put up record-setting numbers when throwing to game-breaking, first-round receivers like Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III, Jaylen Waddle and last year’s Heisman winner, DeVonta Smith.

As one longtime staffer said, “There’s a narrative out there that the Alabama offense exploded under Lane, and he was a big part of where it is now. But the explosion came under Locks and Sark. Just look at the numbers over the last few years.”

Alabama has finished in the top three in scoring offense each of the past three years and sixth or better in both total offense and passing offense the past three years. Of course, it has done it with three straight quarterbacks drafted in the first round and nine running backs, receivers or tight ends selected in the first three rounds of the past four drafts.

Most in and around the program at that time also agree that Kiffin’s offenses helped to attract more elite skill people.

“I do feel like the numbers we put up and what we started to do on offense made it more attractive for offensive skill players to come from all over the country because they always got great defensive players,” Kiffin said.

Just look at Alabama’s current quarterback: Bryce Young, a former five-star prospect from California. Young’s father said they didn’t take Alabama seriously as a destination until they saw the offense begin to open up with Tagovailoa at quarterback. Young’s top receivers are John Metchie III, who is from Canada, and Jameson Williams, a Missouri native who transferred from Ohio State.

Kiffin enters Saturday’s matchup with another another California quarterback, Matt Corral, who is lighting up the scoreboards with 14 touchdowns in three games and is the new Heisman front-runner.

Ole Miss leads the country in scoring offense (52.7 points per game) and total offense (638.3 yards per game), while Alabama isn’t far behind with 46.5 points per game.

And now Kiffin has a chance to make good on an old promise when he returns to Tuscaloosa for the first time as an opposing head coach since 2009, his lone year at Tennessee. After the Vols pushed the Tide to the brink before losing, 12-10, the cocky young Kiffin met Saban at midfield.

“Good game, but we’ll get you the next time.”

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Golden Knights C Karlsson exits loss with injury

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November 9, 2025

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Golden Knights C Karlsson exits loss with injury

  • Associated Press

Nov 9, 2025, 12:31 AM ET

LAS VEGAS — Center William Karlsson sustained an apparent injury at the end of the first period of the Vegas Golden Knights ‘ 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.

How he was injured was unclear. Karlsson didn’t leave the ice with any noticeable ailment, but did not return for the second period.

He set up the game’s first goal with an outstanding pass behind the net to Brett Howden.

Karlsson has four goals and three assists this season. He had back-to-back 50-point seasons, but had 29 in 53 games last year, twice sidelined because of injuries.

The Knights rallied with two third-period goals to force the extra session, but Anaheim defenseman Jacob Trouba ended it with an overtime goal on an assist from Leo Carlsson.

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Indiana’s catch of the year, Oregon’s last-second escape: The B1G stole the show in Week 11

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November 9, 2025

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Indiana's catch of the year, Oregon's last-second escape: The B1G stole the show in Week 11

  • David HaleNov 9, 2025, 12:07 AM ET

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    • College football reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

The Big Ten has a lot going for it. It has the sport’s richest TV contract. It has three teams in the top 10. It is the sport’s chief exporter of cheese, beef and punts. What is often missing from Big Ten games, however, is drama.

It’s not that the Big Ten doesn’t have good games, necessarily. It’s just the drama often feels more “Masterpiece Theater” than “Alien vs. Predator” — a slow burn built upon subtle character studies and power run games. Like a 20-year cheddar, it’s made for refined tastes.

But every so often, the Big Ten offers a surprise. We’ll spend a Saturday wallowing in another defensive stalemate, poised to invest in one of those eye-opening contraptions from “A Clockwork Orange” just to stay awake, and then suddenly Indiana–Penn State becomes something utterly unexpected, like Bret Bielema taking off his hoodie to reveal a giant tattoo of Barry Alvarez astride a unicorn with lightning bolts shooting from his eyes. It’s surprising, disturbing and strangely beautiful.

On Saturday, the Big Ten delivered not just one of those unexpected classics, but two.

No. 2 Indiana was on the brink of disaster until Fernando Mendoza took the Hoosiers on another trip down the field for a game winner.

No. 9 Oregon toyed with becoming the latest victim of Kirk Ferentz’s uncanny ability to drag every offense in the country into a vat of quicksand until Dante Moore chipped away at Iowa‘s blockade to set up a game-winning kick.

Each game turned in the final minutes, only to reverse course and deliver another shocking twist.

Saturday, the Big Ten was the savior of a lackluster Week 11 slate, as two of its best teams peered into the abyss and, seeing only the horrifying visage of Purdue Pete, pulled back from the brink to salvage playoff hopes and deliver enough adrenaline to increase the average Iowa fan’s health insurance premiums.

There had been little happiness in Happy Valley of late. Penn State had lost five straight entering Saturday’s game with Indiana. It had fired its coach. The seasonal flavors at Berkey Creamery were just OK. Before halftime, a contingent of bros had already removed their shirts, a sure sign of desperation in trying times.

But as Penn State roared back from a 20-7 third-quarter deficit to breathe life into a now raucous crowd, all the demons of the 2025 season felt as if they might be exorcised, and the Nittany Lions might do something that had long felt impossible by knocking off a top-five team. Nicholas Singleton‘s 19-yard touchdown grab with 6:27 to go put Penn State up by four, and by the time Indiana got the ball with 1:51 to play, there was almost an air of certainty that the tide had finally turned for the Nittany Lions.

But if the powers that be can take Penn State away from James Franklin, they can’t take the James Franklin out of Penn State, and a win over a top-five team would not come so easily. The Big Ten, after all, isn’t like the grand opening of a Bass Pro Shop. There are rules here, and one of them is that Penn State cannot have nice things.

Mendoza completed passes of 22, 12, 29 and 17, dashing through the Penn State defense like it was security at the Louvre, ultimately delivering a 7-yard touchdown throw to Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone. Cooper’s grab, which warrants strong consideration for catch of the year, saved the Hoosiers from humiliation, silenced the Penn State crowd, kept Indiana on course for a trip to the Big Ten championship and got Gus Johnson dropped from his health insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, Oregon arrived in Iowa to find weather that could best be described as a circle of hell that Dante’s editors cut from his rough draft, deeming it “too on the nose,” and a Hawkeyes defense that was equally as unpleasant.

Iowa did what it does best. It ran the ball 43 times for a meager 101 yards. It stymied Moore, who entered the final drive of the game having thrown for just 65 yards. The Ducks were stifled deep in Iowa territory again and again.

What couldn’t have been anticipated was a late Iowa touchdown drive of 93 yards on 12 plays, forcing grizzled old Hawkeyes fans to turn to their grandchildren and mutter, “These eyes have never seen such beauty.” Given that the sun had already been blotted, this constituted an uncomfortable number of signs of an impending apocalypse being checked off the list.

But Oregon wasn’t going to go down that easily. Moore dinked and dunked his way down the field, driving to the Iowa 21 before stalling. Oregon sent in kicker Atticus Sappington, who put on hold his quest to regain his rightful title as the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, to attempt the game winner. Sappington used his cravat, wiped a smudge off his monocle, gently tapped his pipe on his arm chair, then strode onto the field to boot a 39-yard field goal to secure an 18-16 win.

Ultimately, the Big Ten’s drama did little more than restore order on what might’ve been a day of utter chaos, leading the ACC to quizzically ask, “Wait, you can do that?” The twists and turns still left us in the same place we started, with three teams from the league all but assured a place in the College Football Playoff. It was a Saturday that still saw another Ohio State blowout, a Wisconsin win over Washington that was only slightly more palatable than performing your own appendectomy, and a Rutgers–Maryland matchup that will be used by the CIA to extract information from suspected spies in the future. They can’t all be winners.

But for one Saturday, at least, the Big Ten was the center of the college football universe, the lone purveyor of suspense on a day that desperately needed a dose of excitement.

And if the outcome of all that drama amounts only to further assurances that the Hoosiers and Ducks are playoff bound, let’s just hope they haven’t used up all their magic already.

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Week 11 vibe check

Each week, the biggest matchups deliver major changes to the playoff picture. Meanwhile, dozens of smaller shifts in the landscape can add up to an even bigger impact. We track those here.

Trending up: SEC clarity

Texas A&M threw for 221, ran for 243 and demolished Missouri 38-17 on Saturday, further staking claim to the top spot in the SEC and all but guaranteeing a playoff bid.

In a season in which nearly every team has flirted with disaster, the Aggies have been an antidote to the notion that 2025 is a season of parity. They’ve scored at least 30 in all but one game this year. They’ve won four of their past five SEC games by at least two scores. Marcel Reed has quietly forced his way into the Heisman Trophy conversation, accounting for 250 yards and a pair of touchdowns in Saturday’s win. Texas A&M has blossomed into a relentless winning machine, displaying the type of businesslike constancy that has largely been lacking in college football since Nick Saban’s retirement — a team whose lone flaw is that it’s not all too interesting to see it chip away at each opponent’s psyche like Hannibal Lecter until it’s devouring the opponent’s soul alongside some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

If Texas A&M continues its dominance, it now seems destined to meet Saban’s old employer in the SEC title game. Alabama dispatched with LSU on Saturday 20-9 in a game that proved Louisiana’s governor is no better at designing an offense than Brian Kelly. Ty Simpson threw for 277 yards and a score, Bama’s defense racked up seven tackles for loss, and LSU mustered just 232 yards of offense.

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LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full Highlights

LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide: Full Highlights

Is it a concern that Alabama managed just 56 yards rushing and continues to rely so heavily on Simpson and the passing game? Well, was it a concern that Chuck Norris relied heavily on roundhouse kicks and never bested an opponent via the subtle art of persuasion? Is it a problem that Chick-fil-A is stuck on chicken sandwiches without even trying to sell a nice tuna tartare? Should we be worried that the “beyond” in Bed Bath & Beyond doesn’t extend to lumber and sheet rock? Sometimes being awesome at one thing is enough.

Add in Vanderbilt‘s overtime win against Auburn, and the SEC figures to have at least half the top 14 in the next playoff rankings, so for Alabama and A&M to sit comfortably atop the deepest conference in college football — and to do so by once again winning emphatically — speaks volumes.

It has been three years since an SEC team last won it all. That’s nearly as long as the average wait at a Krystal drive-through. But like a late-night Krystal run, the reward for the wait might be well worth it.

Trending up: Big-budget wins

If there was any doubt who the favorite in the Big 12 should be, Texas Tech set the record straight with a dominant 29-7 win over BYU on Saturday.

Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a touchdown, Behren Morton played mistake-free ball, and the Red Raiders’ defense was suffocating, led by Jacob Rodriguez, who had 14 tackles and an interception. The Red Raiders had three takeaways, held BYU to just 255 total yards and allowed just three conversions on 14 third-down tries.

It’s further proof that Texas Tech’s decision to treat the transfer portal like the buffet at a Golden Corral was a stroke of brilliance. After all, nothing bad has ever happened after consuming too many portions of popcorn shrimp that have been sitting under a heat lamp for six hours.

Adding to the emphatic result Saturday, Texas Tech fans found a workaround for the rule banning the throwing of tortillas onto the field by throwing them — um, not on the field.

Trending up: Wedding season in Mississippi

“Daddy, tell me about how you proposed to mommy.”

“Well, son, we were losing to Georgia by 30, and …”

No, it wasn’t a good day for Mississippi State, which was demolished by Georgia 41-21 as Gunner Stockton threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns. But Stockton couldn’t supply the most romantic moment of the game, despite preparing for the contest by sitting in his F-150, listening to Journey’s “Open Arms” on cassette and staring longingly at a photo of Uga trying to bite an Auburn player.

Of course, when it comes to true love, no one upstages Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin, whose Ole Miss team cruised past The Citadel 49-0, is like the cupid of college football, insofar as he appreciates a romantic gesture like this, and also because he’s the most likely SEC coach to shoot someone with an arrow.

Sure, getting engaged during a blowout loss or a blowout win over an FCS foe might not be what these young ladies always dreamed of, but as anyone who has ever held a rehearsal dinner at Waffle House can tell you, you can’t spell “romance” without S-E-C.

Trending down: Up-tempo offense

Army escaped Temple 14-13 by running out the clock on an Owls’ comeback effort with an 18-play drive that ate up the final 9:53 of the game before the Black Knights took a knee at the Temple 5-yard line.

Army held the ball for 13:31 in the fourth quarter, running 24 plays to Temple’s three.

Afterward, Army’s keep-away performance was lauded as the greatest triumph of American military strategy since Patton famously engaged Mussolini in a nearly three-day version of the “Orange you glad I didn’t say ‘Banana'” joke while the Allies took control of the Mediterranean.

Trending up: Buzz cuts

Things are bleak in Boulder, as Colorado lost its third straight — 29-22 to West Virginia — assuring the Buffaloes will miss out on a bowl in Deion Sanders’ third season at the helm.

Colorado freshman QB Julian Lewis got the start and had some good moments, throwing for 299 yards and two scores, but he was sacked seven times, including one particularly painful takedown.

It’s the most unfortunate hair day in college football since Mike Gundy got his mullet caught in an escalator at the mall while trying to prove gravity only exists because we believe it does.

Trending up: Candy motivation

Dabo Swinney, hoping to send a message to his team after a 3-5 start to the season, reportedly gave his players Sour Patch Kids before Saturday’s game with Florida State — a reminder that you have to get through the sour before you get to the sweet.

It proved a far more effective lesson than when he tried to teach trick-or-treaters about offseason training techniques with boxes of Milk Duds a week earlier.

Cade Klubnik threw for a touchdown and ran for another, and the Clemson defense sacked Tommy Castellanos six times and forced two Florida State turnovers en route to a 24-10 win.

After the game, FSU coach Mike Norvell handed out 100 Grand bars to his team to symbolize the hefty buyout he’s likely to be getting after the Seminoles lost their fifth game of the season to fall to 1-5 in ACC play.

Trending down: Certainty in the Group of 5

Memphis wasn’t ranked in the committee’s first top 25, but the Tigers were still pegged as the top team outside the Power 4 and in line for a playoff berth.

On Friday, Tulane upended those plans, as Jake Retzlaff threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns, and the Green Wave toppled Memphis 38-32.

That opened the door for James Madison to make its way to the top of the Group of 5, and the Dukes delivered a 35-23 win over Marshall Thundering Herd, sparked by Alonza Barnett III‘s three touchdown throws.

The committee will now follow protocol by asking ChatGPT if UCF is still a Group of 5 team, then let the algorithm decide who should be ranked highest.

Trending down: Committee hate

In the first playoff rankings of the season, the committee saw fit to rank Miami eight spots below Notre Dame, despite having the same record and a head-to-head win. It seemed an illogical choice, but one easily defended by committee members who rightly noted that the Canes’ offense too often looked like a toddler who hadn’t mastered object permanence trying to parallel park.

On Saturday, the Canes took out their frustration on woeful Syracuse, with Carson Beck leading a 38-10 win, in spite of a host of Miami offensive weapons missing the game due to injury.

Miami seemed intent on proving to the committee that the offense had its share of imagination, with receiver Malachi Toney throwing a touchdown to Beck, and Beck delivering a TD throw to 335-pound offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa.

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Francis Mauigoa crosses goal line for 3-yard rushing touchdown

Francis Mauigoa crosses goal line for 3-yard rushing touchdown

The win proved something of an empty statement, however, as all committee members had missed the game as their DVRs were full, and they were forced to watch a bunch of episodes of “9-1-1: Nashville” instead to make space.

Trending down: Nice things in the ACC

In Week 10, top-ranked teams Georgia Tech and Miami were both upset, utterly upending the ACC’s hopes for multiple playoff bids.

Week 11 ACC said, “Hold my beer,” and then proceeded to slip on a banana peel and spill that beer all over itself.

Virginia, the league’s highest-ranked team, saw QB Chandler Morris leave the game with a concussion and the offense disappear, falling to Wake Forest 16-9.

Louisville, the team that might have had the best case for a top-12 ranking, played without star tailback Isaac Brown and struggled to consistently move the football. Instead, Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele threw for 323 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 3-yard strike to Jacob De Jesus on fourth down in overtime to secure a 29-26 win.

And Duke, a team now tied for first place in the conference, lost its third nonconference game of the year — and second to a non-Power 4 team — to UConn 37-34.

Now, there is the possibility that two Group of 5 champions could ultimately end up ranked higher, leaving the league out of the playoff entirely. Regardless of that unlikely outcome, the committee has recommended that the ACC not book any travel in advance and should probably wear mittens when using scissors for the rest of the season.

Trending up: Cashing NIL checks

Cutter Boley threw two touchdown passes, Kentucky ran for 233 yards, and the Wildcats embarrassed Florida 38-7 on Saturday.

Afterward, we can only imagine QB Zach Calzada, smoking a cigar and wearing a velvet tracksuit, handed hundreds to each Florida player, patted them on the cheek and said “good game, good effort,” before popping a bottle of Ale 8, spraying it on a group of confused groundskeepers and hopping into a limo with Ashley Judd and Secretariat’s great-grandson.

Under-the-radar play of the week

Early in the second quarter of a tie game, USC engaged in a little cloak-and-dagger scheme on a fourth-down play, running backup QB Sam Huard onto the field in a No. 80 jersey — which just so happens to be the same number worn by punter Sam Johnson.

The ruse was effective against Northwestern, and Huard tossed a completion to Tanook Hines for a 10-yard completion and a first down. USC scored on the drive to take a 14-7 lead and went on to win 38-17.

The play didn’t exactly sit well with everyone though.

Punting is sacrosanct in the Big Ten, and now these carpetbaggers from Holly-weird come waltzing into this historic conference and make a mockery of their most beloved traditions.

Lincoln Riley was unapologetic afterward, however, noting that no Trojans in history had ever so cleverly toppled an opponent by presenting something as a benign concession when it was, in truth, an offensive attack.

Under-the-radar game of the week

With 2:23 to play, Jacob Fields picked off Delaware QB Nick Minicucci and returned it to the end zone to give Louisiana Tech a 24-16 lead.

Then things got weird.

Delaware marched 72 yards on eight plays, scoring with 34 seconds to go to pull within two. The Hens failed to connect on the 2-point try, but Nate Reed used a plotline from a “Now You See Me” sequel to execute one of the greatest onside kicks in recent history, giving the Hens the ball back with 33 seconds to go.

Then, on Delaware’s third straight possession without Louisiana Tech running an offensive play, Reed came on to drill a 51-yard kick to win the game 25-24.

It was the type of chaotic finish rarely seen in Delaware outside of last call at The Starboard, and it gave the Hens win No. 5 for the season. As a first-year FBS member, however, Delaware won’t be in a bowl unless there aren’t enough eligible teams elsewhere, but the good news is the Hens can still do all their holiday shopping tax-free at the Christiana Mall, which is nice.

Heisman five

1. Ohio State QB Julian Sayin

There’s something that just feels off about Sayin’s Heisman candidacy. It has been too easy, like an email from a deposed prince assuring you of millions if you can just help him out by providing your credit card number. Sayin threw for 303 yards and a score against Purdue, even without one of his top receivers, while Jeremiah Smith picked up the slack, catching 10 balls for 137 yards. Sayin looks like he shouldn’t be able to get into an R-rated movie without a member of the Ohio State coaching staff accompanying him, and yet he has been nearly flawless all season. How is this possible? It feels like someone is about to explain that he’s as much a real quarterback as is a sentient Jugs machine that was developed by OpenAI to eventually eliminate the need for human quarterbacks.

2. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza

If Mendoza takes home the Heisman as many pundits seem to feel is inevitable now, his final drive that toppled Penn State and shredded Gus Johnson’s vocal cords will be lauded as his “Heisman moment.” Hard to argue. It wasn’t just that he found the holes in Penn State’s defense. There weren’t holes. He created them. He put the ball, time and again, in the one spot his receivers could catch it, and each time — miraculously on the final throw — they did. We’re not quite ready to hand him the hardware yet, but the Big Ten title game, if it is a matchup between Indiana and Ohio State, figures to be the deciding factor.

3. Alabama QB Ty Simpson

Years from now, our greatest scientists will study the game film of Simpson’s Week 1 loss to Florida State, and the first one to explain it rationally will win a Nobel Prize.

4. Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love

Love carried 13 times for 94 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 49-10 win over Navy in Week 11. He has multiple touchdowns in six of his past eight games. His next three games are against ACC teams. He might finish the year with 100 touchdowns.

5. UConn QB Joe Fagnano

OK, we know, putting a UConn QB in the Heisman conversation is a bit like adding Nachos BellGrande to the tasting menu at The French Laundry. But hear us out: Fagnano was 27-of-39 for 311 yards and 3 touchdowns passing, ran for 51 more yards and scored a critical 2-point conversion late as the Huskies knocked off Duke 37-34. Fagnano now has 25 touchdown passes without a pick this season — the first player to do that since Marcus Mariota in 2013. Fagnano has thrown 382 consecutive passes without an interception, passing Russell Wilson (379) for the second-longest streak in FBS history. He now trails only Louisiana Tech’s Colby Cameron, who threw 444 straight without an INT in 2011 and 2012. In other words, it’s time to award Taco Bell with a Michelin star.

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Projecting the CFP top 12: Who’s No. 2?

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November 9, 2025

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Projecting the CFP top 12: Who's No. 2?

Following the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, selection committee chair Mack Rhoades wanted to make sure reporters understood the most integral part of the ranking process.

“We’ve watched the games,” he said on the weekly teleconference. “Let me repeat that; we watch the games.”

That won’t make it easier to decide who should be No. 2 on Tuesday night: Indiana, which escaped a 3-6 Penn State team, or Texas A&M, which soundly beat a CFP top 25 team in Mizzou. A deeper dive into the statistics and résumés of both undefeated teams — plus the context of why the group ranked them No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, last week — will factor into their discussions. It might be a bigger debate than how far No. 7 BYU should fall this week after a 29-7 loss to No. 8 Texas Tech.

Here’s a prediction of what the selection committee will do Tuesday night when it reveals its second of six rankings (7 p.m. ET/ESPN).

Jump to:
Ranking | Bracket

Projecting the top 12

Why they could be here: Ohio State earned its fourth Big Ten road win of the season Saturday, albeit against a 2-8 Purdue team that hasn’t won since Sept. 6 against Southern Illinois. The Buckeyes entered Saturday ranked No. 33 in strength of schedule, according to ESPN Analytics, but No. 1 in Game Control and No. 3 in Strength of Record. “So it was certainly close [between Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M], but when we looked at film, and we’re blessed to have committee members and coaches that do a lot of film work, we just felt like Ohio State had a slight edge when we think about offensive line play and then a slight edge defensively,” Rhoades said after the first ranking release Tuesday. “That was really the outcome. Ohio State has some, I’m going to call them explosive players, that probably stood out as well.”

Why they could be lower: It would be difficult for the committee to justify dropping the Buckeyes below Indiana after the Hoosiers were fortunate to escape Penn State with a win Saturday, but undefeated Texas A&M continues to make a case for the top spot. The Aggies, who entered the week ranked No. 1 in ESPN’s Strength of Record metric, earned another CFP top 25 win at Mizzou on Saturday.

Need to know: Ohio State entered Week 11 with the best chance in the country to reach the playoff (99.2%), the best chance to earn the No. 1 seed (41.1%), and the best chance to win it all (27%).

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 29 at Michigan. It’s the only CFP top 25 team left on Ohio State’s regular-season schedule. The Buckeyes are trying to avoid a fifth straight loss to their rivals.

Why they could be here: The road win against 3-6 Penn State isn’t going to help the Hoosiers’ résumé much, but they narrowly avoided putting their first-round bye in jeopardy. Indiana should remain safely in the top four, thanks to a double-digit road win against No. 9 Oregon and another CFP top 25 win at Iowa. The Hoosiers beat two teams that were in a nailbiter Saturday before Oregon won on a game-winning field goal at Iowa. Penn State and Iowa are the only opponents Indiana hasn’t defeated by double digits. The historic 63-10 win against 6-3 Illinois is another respectable résumé booster, even though it’s not against a CFP top 25 opponent.

Why they could be lower: Texas A&M continues to make a push to move up after its 38-17 win at Mizzou on Saturday. The Aggies entered Week 11 ranked higher than Indiana in ESPN’s Strength of Schedule and Strength of Record metrics.

Need to know: Both of Indiana’s remaining opponents — Wisconsin and Purdue — have six losses. The Hoosiers entered Week 11 with the best chance in the Big Ten to reach the conference championship game.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 28 at Purdue. It’s on a Friday night against an in-state rival — and Indiana still has at least a 97% chance to win, according to ESPN Analytics.

Why they could be here: With Saturday’s win at Mizzou, the Aggies have won three straight SEC road games to go along with the Sept. 13 win at Notre Dame. The committee will discuss, though, that Missouri was without injured starting quarterback Beau Pribula, and the Aggies easily handled freshman quarterback Matt Zollers, who was making his first start. Texas A&M entered Week 11 ranked No. 18 in defensive efficiency, behind Ohio State (No. 3) and Indiana (No. 2), and that played a role in the committee’s decision last week. “What we saw in A&M is a really, really good football team,” Rhoades said Tuesday. “They went into Death Valley, I thought dominated a good LSU team. You have a dynamic playmaker at quarterback, Marcel Reed. He can beat you with his arm. He can beat you with his feet. Impressive win, certainly going on the road, South Bend. I think you’re talking about really small margins when you think about the difference between Ohio State, Indiana and A&M, and then I think statistically, when we looked at A&M defensively, they’re just lower than both Ohio State and Indiana. We had to make a hard decision, and you’re trying to find separators, and that was a separator for us.”

Why they could be higher: Though Indiana was fortunate to escape 3-6 Penn State with a win, Texas A&M went on the road and beat the committee’s No. 22 team soundly, scoring 24 points in the second half against Mizzou.

Need to know: Texas A&M entered Saturday with a 56.7% chance to earn a first-round bye but had less than a 50% chance to beat Texas in the regular-season finale.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 28 at Texas. It’s the only ranked opponent remaining on the Aggies’ schedule, and their last road game.

Why they could be here: If the Tide didn’t start any higher in the first ranking, it’s unlikely a home win against LSU on Saturday will boost them above any of the undefeated teams. The head-to-head win will keep them above Georgia, though, as the committee’s highest-ranked one-loss team. The road win against the No. 5 Bulldogs is one of the best in the country — arguably better than any win the teams above them can claim — but the season-opening loss to Florida State is holding them back. The Oct. 11 victory at Mizzou is still good, even if the Tigers fall out of the Top 25 this week, and the committee will recognize Bama beat Mizzou when starting quarterback Beau Pribula was healthy. The Tide also have a CFP top 25 win against Tennessee, which had a bye this week. “I’m not sure, when you look at a résumé, anybody had a better stretch of four games,” Rhoades said of the Tide on Tuesday. “When you think about Alabama, really, really impressive, two of those wins on the road. Going into Athens, one of the hardest, toughest environments to be able to get out of there with a win. There was certainly discussion about the Florida State loss early on, but just felt like that four-game stretch — which by the way, historical in the SEC. Nobody has beaten four straight ranked teams without a bye.”

Why they could be lower: It would be hard for the committee to justify any movement up or down this week, given the teams around them won, the head-to-head results and last week’s ranking.

Need to know: Alabama’s strength of schedule was No. 4 in the country heading into Week 11 — better than every team ranked ahead of it. The Tide was No. 5, though, in ESPN’s Strength of Record metric, trailing the committee’s top three teams.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 15 vs. Oklahoma. This is the last ranked opponent Alabama will face.

Why they could be here: Georgia didn’t need a second-half surge at Mississippi State, after rallying from a tie or from behind during its previous three games. The committee likes what it sees from Georgia, but it has to account for head-to-head results, which is why Georgia should continue to be sandwiched between Alabama and Ole Miss again Tuesday night. “I think Gunner Stockton at quarterback has really progressed,” Rhoades said Tuesday. “It certainly feels like they have more confidence in him, doing a lot more with him. Again, he’s another maybe similar to Marcel Reed where he can beat you with his arm, he can beat you with his feet. The head-to-head against Ole Miss, obviously we took that into account. We absolutely took into account the loss at home versus Alabama.”

Why they could be lower: It would be surprising to see the Bulldogs move Tuesday night, given that nothing drastic happened around them.

Need to know: Georgia will play its last SEC game of the season Saturday against Texas, as it finishes the month against Charlotte and rival Georgia Tech.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 15 vs. Texas. The Longhorns beat Vanderbilt on Nov. 1 and enter this game on a four-game winning streak. They also had a bye to prepare for the trip to Athens, while Georgia is coming off a road win against Mississippi State.

Why they could be here: A lopsided win against The Citadel won’t impress the selection committee, but the Rebels already earned their respect in the first ranking. Ole Miss will still be ranked behind Georgia because of the head-to-head road loss to the Bulldogs on Oct. 18. The Rebels entered Saturday with a slight edge over Texas Tech in Strength of Record, but with greater separation in strength of schedule, where Ole Miss was No. 25 and Texas Tech was No. 58. The committee will also consider the Rebels’ road defeat to Georgia is a better loss than the Red Raiders’ road setback to Arizona State, which has lost two of its past four games.

Why they could be lower: Texas Tech earned a CFP top-10 win Saturday when it beat previously undefeated BYU. Ole Miss’ best win was Oct. 25 at No. 12 Oklahoma.

Need to know: The 45-10 win against Tulane on Sept. 20 continues to enhance the Rebels’ overall record strength, even though it’s not a CFP top 25 win. The Green Wave earned an important win at Memphis on Friday, keeping their playoff hopes alive. Tulane also beat Northwestern and Duke this season, and the committee pays attention to opponents’ opponents (yes, you read that right).

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 28 at Mississippi State. The Egg Bowl isn’t a gimme, even after the Bulldogs were beaten soundly Saturday by Georgia. A loss could mean a first-round road trip instead of a home game for Ole Miss — or getting bumped out of the bracket.

Why they could be here: The Red Raiders looked like the best team in the Big 12 on Saturday, and the committee will likely reflect that in its second ranking. The double-digit win against previously undefeated BYU is better than Oregon’s best win, but the loss to Arizona State could play a role in the committee keeping Texas Tech behind Ole Miss. Still, the committee factors in injuries to key players, and the Red Raiders were without their starting quarterback Behren Morton (knee) on the road in the close defeat to the Sun Devils. “The loss at Arizona State without Behren at quarterback, Arizona State wins that late, so we do talk about quality wins,” Rhoades said last Tuesday. “We also talk about quality losses.”

Why they could be higher: The selection committee also rewarded Texas Tech for its road win against No. 13 Utah. On Saturday, Texas Tech earned its ninth victory by at least 20 points this season, showing the committee its ability to win convincingly consistently. The Red Raiders’ defense held BYU to its fewest points in any game over the past two seasons.

Need to know: Texas Tech and BYU are still the most likely matchup in the Big 12 title game. According to ESPN Analytics, Texas Tech has a 93% chance to reach it, BYU is second with a 55% chance and Cincinnati is third (19%). If BYU captures the Big 12, Texas Tech could claim a regular-season win against the eventual Big 12 champ, which would help boost its résumé and the case for playoff inclusion as the league runner-up.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 29 at West Virginia. The Red Raiders have at least an 80% chance to win their two remaining regular-season games, but this one is slightly more difficult than against UCF because it’s on the road at a difficult venue.

Why they could be here: The Ducks got a much-needed résumé boost with Saturday’s win at Iowa, their first against a CFP top 25 team. Rhoades had said last week that Oregon had the lowest record strength of any team in the committee’s top 10. Saturday’s win also showed the group some impressive depth and grit, with the Ducks winning on the road in horrible weather and without multiple injured starters, including three of their top receivers. The question is if Iowa will still be a top 25 team Tuesday now that the Hawkeyes have three losses.

Why they could be higher: Oregon has been passing the eye test, ranking in the top five in offensive and defensive efficiency entering Saturday. With the exception of the two close road wins at Iowa and Penn State, the Ducks have dominated their opponents, ranking No. 4 in the country in Game Control — trailing only Ohio State, Indiana and Texas Tech.

Need to know: Oregon has at least a 70% chance to win each of its remaining games (Minnesota, USC and at Washington), according to ESPN Analytics, but it’s still unlikely to reach the Big Ten title game. The head-to-head home loss to the Hoosiers is a major reason.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 22 vs. USC. The Trojans are 7-2 with one Big Ten loss and opportunities to climb in the ranking. A win at Oregon would flip the script in the conference pecking order, and if USC can beat Iowa Saturday, this game will be the Trojans’ Super Bowl.

Why they could be here: Notre Dame had no trouble dismantling an overmatched Navy team that was playing without injured starting quarterback Blake Horvath. It was Notre Dame’s seventh straight win since starting the season 0-2. The committee considered that those two losses in last week’s first ranking were by a total of four points to two CFP top 25 teams, including No. 3 and unbeaten Texas A&M. The committee was also impressed with Notre Dame’s 34-24 win against USC on Oct. 18, and that will continue to resonate with the Trojans improving to 7-2 after Friday’s win against Northwestern. Rhoades said Notre Dame had been “much, much better defensively” of late. “You look at their backfield, Jadarian Price, Jeremiyah Love, probably the best backfield in the country when you think about one-two punch,” Rhoades said. “Going into the Southern Cal game, they lost their starting center for the year, and they were able to overcome that and run for a bunch of yards, again, against Southern Cal.”

Why they could be lower: This all depends on how far BYU drops. The Cougars will most likely be at No. 10 above Notre Dame and the two-loss pack of teams, or at No. 12, and below OU and Texas but above Utah. If the Cougars drop to No. 12, Notre Dame would get a slight promotion by default this week.

Need to know: Notre Dame still has the best chance of any team to win out, according to ESPN Analytics.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 15 at Pitt. The Panthers might be playing the best of any team in the ACC during their five-game winning streak. They also had a bye week to prepare for the Irish.

Why they could be here: The Longhorns had a bye after earning a top-12 spot in the first ranking. Texas has won four straight, including CFP top 25 wins against Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. Vandy needed overtime to beat a 4-6 Auburn team Saturday, but that win should continue to help the Longhorns’ résumé. The Oct. 4 loss at Florida remains a stain on that résumé, though. The 14-7 season-opening road defeat to No. 1-ranked Ohio State isn’t what keeps Texas out of the playoff.

Why they could be lower: It depends on how far BYU falls after losing 29-7 to Texas Tech on Saturday. BYU’s lone win against a CFP top 25 team was Oct. 18 at home against Utah 24-21. BYU entered Week 11 ranked No. 45 in strength of schedule, while Texas was No. 11. BYU didn’t lose to Florida, though — its lone defeat is to a CFP top-10 team.

Need to know: No team has a better opportunity to impress the selection committee in the final three weeks of the season than Texas, which will face two CFP top-five teams in No. 5 Georgia and No. 3 Texas A&M. If Texas splits those games and finishes as a three-loss team, it could still be ranked in the top 12 but might not make the playoff. It would be a similar situation to what happened to three-loss Alabama last year, which finished No. 11 on Selection Day, but was excluded from the playoff to make room for ACC champion Clemson. If Texas wins both games, it could jump Notre Dame and put the Irish in a similarly precarious position at No. 11 or No. 12.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 28 vs. Texas A&M. It certainly won’t be easy to win at Georgia on Saturday, but the Longhorns had a bye week to prepare for it while the Bulldogs were on the road. Texas will face in-state rival Texas A&M on a Friday night in the regular-season finale, the second top-five team it will face in a three-week span.

Why they could be here: The Sooners had a bye, but are stuck behind Texas because of the head-to-head loss to the Longhorns on Oct. 11. Wins against Tennessee and Michigan, though, have them within range of making the 12-team field, and it helped that the committee ranked the Vols No. 25 as their highest-ranked three-loss team.

Why they could be lower: The selection committee probably wouldn’t shuffle this order, considering Texas and Oklahoma were off this week, but OU could stay at 12 in the second ranking if the committee keeps BYU in the top 10.

Need to know: If the playoff were today, Oklahoma would still be bumped out of the field during the seeding process to make room for the ACC champion, which is still projected to be ranked outside of the committee’s top 12 but guaranteed a spot as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 15 at Alabama. The Sooners will be in a must-win situation in Tuscaloosa, as the rest of their résumé likely won’t be enough to compensate for a third loss, given that they’re already on the bubble in the eyes of the committee.

Why they could be here: The Cougars have a good win (Oct. 18 against Utah) and an eyebrow-raising defeat (Saturday). Texas Tech is a good team, but how BYU lost to the Red Raiders will matter. BYU was outplayed, and its offense was stifled: 67 rushing yards, 3 turnovers, 4.9 yards per pass, while converting just 3 of 14 third downs. A drop behind two-loss Texas and OU isn’t unreasonable. Utah is the only opponent BYU has defeated with fewer than four defeats. BYU entered Saturday ranked No. 45 in ESPN’s Strength of Schedule metric — significantly behind Notre Dame (23), Texas (11) and Oklahoma (13). The loss opens the door for the committee to reevaluate BYU’s body of work. The committee would still likely honor BYU’s head-to-head win against Utah, though, giving the Cougars a safety net to stay in the top 12.

Why they could be higher: It was BYU’s first loss of the season, on the road, and to a top-10 team leading the nation in defensive efficiency.

Need to know: If BYU runs the table and reaches the Big 12 title game, it would clinch a spot in the playoff with a win. What happens if the Cougars finish as a two-loss runner-up with a second lopsided loss to Texas Tech? Where they’re placed in the committee’s second ranking Tuesday night will provide some insight and show how much margin for error they might have. If they land at No. 12 on Selection Day, even as the Big 12 runner-up, they’d be excluded to make room for the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion, which is projected to be South Florida out of the American Conference.

Toughest remaining game: Nov. 22 at Cincinnati. The Big 12 race isn’t over yet, and Cincinnati might have something to say about it — unless the Bearcats play the way they did during a 45-14 loss at Utah. Cincinnati still has the third-best chance to reach the Big 12 title game behind Texas Tech and BYU.

Bracket

Based on the rankings above, the seeding would be:

First-round byes

No. 1 Ohio State (Big Ten champ)
No. 2 Indiana
No. 3 Texas A&M (SEC champ)
No. 4 Alabama

First-round games

On campus, Dec. 19 and 20

No. 12 South Florida (American champ) at No. 5 Georgia
No. 11 Georgia Tech (ACC champ) at No. 6 Ole Miss
No. 10 Texas at No. 7 Texas Tech (Big 12 champ)
No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 8 Oregon

Quarterfinal games

At the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, Capital One Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl Presented by Prudential and Allstate Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

No. 12 South Florida/No. 5 Georgia winner vs. No. 4 Alabama
No. 11 Georgia Tech/No. 6 Ole Miss winner vs. No. 3 Texas A&M
No. 10 Texas/No. 7 Texas Tech winner vs. No. 2 Indiana
No. 9 Notre Dame/No. 8 Oregon winner vs. No. 1 Ohio State

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